Amazon sees another key exit at logistics unit

Starting with Manpreet Ratia, former director and head of last-mile operations in ATSPL who went on to join Myntra in June, director of transportation, Samuel Thomas followed suit in August.Payal Ganguly | ET Bureau | January 06, 2017, 08:14 IST

BENGALURU: The director and head of Human Resources for India operations at Amazon, Kinjal Choudhary has left the company. He was in charge of 25,000 workforce at the fulfilment and logistics team at Amazon India called Amazon Transportation Services Pvt Ltd (ATSPL).

According to Choudhary’s LinkedIn profile, the move happened in November 2016, a year and half after he joined the company from PepsiCo. Choudhary reported to Raj Raghavan, director and Asia Pacific HR leader at Amazon.

Amazon India did not respond to an e-mail seeking comments on the exit. Amazon India saw an exodus of leadership and senior managers from mid-2016 from its transportation and logistics team. 2016 also saw a string of high-profile exits and management rejig at rival marketplace Flipkart.

Starting with Manpreet Ratia, former director and head of last-mile operations in ATSPL who went on to join Myntra in June, director of transportation, Samuel Thomas followed suit in August.

Other senior-level exits include director of operations at ATSPL Projesh Kundu who joined Quikr as head of operations in November.

"We haven’t made any recent changes to the Amazon India operations structure, with the last significant change almost a year back when we combined the Fulfilment and the Transportation businesses to form Amazon India Operations for a scalable and seamless customer experience. We have continued to add people and resources across multiple roles and locations to support this rapid and immense business ramp up. As is natural in any large corporate, there have also been some who moved on to pursue opportunities outside the company," said an Amazon India spokesperson in response to a detailed email query.

"There is a process of de-centralisation being followed by ATSPL which will help quick turnaround and a larger team for the logistics unit. The management exits are a part of the vision Amazon India has for its logistics network," said a source aware of the developments in the company.

ATSPL was built by Amazon India in order to meet the service level requirements of the marketplace. It competes with captive logistics arm of Flipkart, Ekart which serves orders on the marketplace as well as for third parties.